Pinning his hopes for a new trial on a panel of three appeals court judges in Lake Charles, Vince Marinello, the former New Orleans newsman serving a life sentence for killing his estranged wife in Old Metairie, claims prosecutors cheated to win a conviction because evidence was sorely lacking.

Times-Picayune archiveVince Marinello turned 73 this month at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

"The case against Mr. Marinello was circumstantial, at best," Marinello wrote in one of two appeal briefs. "The prosecutor's improper, blatant and repeated attempts to prejudice Mr. Marinello in the eyes of the jury are proof positive that the prosecutor was desperate.

"The prosecutor knew his chances of obtaining a conviction were slim," he wrote. "In an overzealous attempt to gain a conviction at any cost the prosecutor used every proper and improper method to gain a victory."

Marinello, who turned 73 this month at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, is appealing his December 2008 conviction of second-degree murder in the Sept. 1, 2006, death of Liz Marinello, 45, who was shot twice in the face the day before as she left a Metairie Road office building.

On Tuesday, Marinello's attorney Annette Roach of the state-funded Louisiana Appellate Project and Jefferson Parish Assistant District Attorney Juliet Clark will square off before 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal Judges John Saunders, Marc Amy and Elizabeth Pickett. The 3rd Circuit has the appeal because the case was tried in Lafayette after 24th Judicial District Judge Conn Regan ruled that extensive media coverage made it impossible to select a fair and impartial jury in Jefferson Parish.

Search warrant challenged

Marinello, who seeks a new trial and his immediate release from prison, is not expected to attend the hearing. But in two briefs he filed since June to supplement those filed by Roach, he rebuts allegations made during the trial that he killed his wife to silence her claims that he was a bigamist.

Most issues raised in the appeal allege Regan erred in rejecting pretrial arguments by Marinello's trial defense team. Among them was Regan's refusal to remove the Jefferson Parish district attorney's office from the case because of its involvement with the radio show host before the homicide, when he accused his wife of domestic abuse that eventually landed her in jail.

The appeal also alleges Regan erred in rejecting the defense attorneys' contention that a detective improperly sought a specific judge to sign search warrants, allowing officers to scour the FEMA trailer in Lakeview he occupied as his marriage was coming to an end. It was through one of those warrants that a detective found the 14-point murder checklist that prosecutors said Marinello wrote in planning his wife's murder. As he did in his trial, Marinello says in the appeal he wrote the list after the homicide, knowing he was a suspect and planning to address the issue with his friend, then-Sheriff Harry Lee.

Clark, of the district attorney's office, said Marinello's testimony confirmed "key pieces of prosecution evidence," including that he wrote the checklist. "Otherwise, his testimony was self-serving, riddled with convenient recollections (and) memory lapses and riddled with contradictions and logical inconsistencies," Clark wrote.

Roach wrote that Marinello was unfairly prejudiced by bigamy allegations -- his divorce to his second wife had not become final until days after he married Liz Marinello -- or that he committed fraud in applying for FEMA aid and an employee assistance fund after Hurricane Katrina to rebuild a home he no longer owned. In raising the allegations, prosecutors merely attempted to paint Marinello as a man "of bad character," and none of it proved Marinello killed his wife, Roach wrote.

Clark responded that if the appeals court judges find that some of evidence was improper, the error would be harmless in light of the "overwhelming evidence" of Marinello's guilt.

Whose bulging eyes?

Marinello claims that a prosecutor "lost sight of his duty to see justice rather than convictions," and that the prosecutor engaged in "a vicious attack" in questioning him about the mafia. The prosecutors provided no evidence that Marinello had mob ties, he wrote.

"Yet, the prosecutor attempted to compare Mr. Marinello to reputed 'Mafia' boss John Gotti," Marinello wrote. "Why? Because the state's circumstantial case was weak and the prosecutor knew that if he didn't pull out all stops, Mr. Marinello would be acquitted."

Marinello also takes issue with witnesses who testified against him, including David Selmo, a handyman hired to repair his ex-wife's Lakeview home who was out for his "15 minutes of fame" when he testified about a conversation they had in which Marinello asked about weapons and murder.

Marinello also attacked testimony from Lauren White, who testified that she saw him riding a bike on Metairie Road during the days leading up to and on the day of the homicide. She testified she realized it was Marinello after seeing his photographs in news reports of his arrest -- she recognized his "bulging eyes," she testified.

In his appeal, Marinello denies he has bulging eyes.

"Maybe Ms. White doesn't know the difference but Marty Feldman has bulging eyes, not Mr. Marinello," he wrote of the late English actor.